Shanon Shah

 

 

It’s all too dark;

even the stars are hardly shining.

But the rays from your heart

have always made light of my sadness,

especially when we’re together.

I’m an astronaut who’s seeing

space for the first time:

 

and to think, this lonely universe

has for so long now excluded

my tiny heart. Even the moon

and stars displaced

have only now begun

to shine again.

 

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I met Shanon a few years ago at an excellent Fado concert in the city. He’s as friendly as his tunes in his last album. This “poem” is a nonliteral translation of two stanzas of his song “Angkasawan” (Astronaut).